Paul F. Tompkins To Play the Firebird, Transform Comedy Industry

By Nicholas Phillips Fri., Aug. 27 2010 at 11:54 AM

Categories: Arts, Jesters

Seth Olenick

Paul F. Tompkins will bust your gut on Saturday! Lit'rally.

Did we lurve Paul F. Tompkins more on Mr. Show, Tenacious D, VH1's Best Week Ever or his stand-up? No matter. You can catch his act at the Firebird on Saturday night thanks to a new business model: if 300 people on Facebook invite him to their city, he shows up.

Daily RFT: Let's talk about you and how you're reinventing the comedy business as we know it.

Paul F. Tompkins: [belly laughter] Ahhh, yes.

How are the "Facebook 300" shows going?

It's the most tremendous happy accident that's ever happened to me. I could not be more thrilled about booking shows this way. The crowds have been the best crowds of my career, and in almost 25 years of doing this I feel like I've never been as good as I am now.

Are other comics asking you about it?

They're not asking about it. They're just doing it. [laughs] And that's fine, it's not as if I invented this. There are musicians who've been doing this [like Jonathan Coulton].

Is there any place you don't want to go?

I don't care where it is! If people wanna see me, I wanna go there. The craziest place I've been I think was Halifax, Nova Scotia. Which is really, REALLY far away in Canada. But it was a great night! The audiences were really smart and funny and nice. I hung out and had a drink at the bar and chatted with a bunch of people. And everybody was great!